From supertanker to shipwreck, how industrial giant Carillion collapsed

WITH ITS name attached to developments of the Royal Opera House, the Channel Tunnel and the Tate Modern, Carillion was considered for years to be a force of British industry.

However, the company, home to 43,000 staff around the world and the UK’s second-largest construction firm, had become heavily weighed down with debts totalling some £900m, including a pension deficit of £587m.

The Wolverhampton-based company has hundreds of contracts to provide school dinners, maintain and operate buildings and estates, security and housekeeping, as well as cleaning and catering at NHS hospitals.

But last year, the firm was forced to admit that its balance sheet was struggling and a review of its construction contracts found them to be much less valuable than previously thought, resulting in a £845m write-off.

Carillion is believed to have asked the Government to provide funds of £20m to help it secure more money from the banks and avoid going into liquidation, but it is understood that Ministers were unwilling to offer financial support as they had for the banks a decade ago.

While the Cabinet Office has declined to comment, there are questions as to whether this was an issue of perception, as funding would look like the Government was bailing out yet another private firm.